By Greg Perkins
Needing to win their final regular season game of the season to advance to the sectional tournament, the Roadrunners came up short in front of a packed house Friday night against visiting Alchesay.
Holbrook started well enough, holding a one-point edge at the close of the first behind eight in the frame from Abrian Dickson, who hit two from long range. Holbrook held onto that one-point margin by matching the Falcons with 10 second quarter points. Miireux Begaii canned a pair of field goals in the second and Kyle Chee hit his first of two three-point field goals.
Despite a three-point shot from Casey Nelson and a rare four-point play from Tristan Zahne, Alchesay flipped the tables on Holbrook, taking a one-point lead into the final period. In the fourth Holbrook picked up three-point shots from Marlin Martin, Andon Hatch and Chee, but the Birds also went one for four at the line in the final eight minutes, opening the door for the Falcons, who walked away with the 52-47 win.
Dickson led Holbrook in scoring with 8 points. Hatch and Begaii netted 7 each; Chee, 6; Martin and Zahne, 5 each; Dontae Hollins, 4; Nelson, 3; and Young, 2.
Holbrook made seven two-point field goals, nine three-point shots and went six for 11 at the line.
The Falcons were led by Arnold Walker with 14 and Rashaan Stover with 13. As a team they hit five three-point shots and made three of four free throws.
With the loss the Roadrunners fell into a three-way tie for third place in the sectional standings. With only the top four making the section tournament, the Roadrunners were on the wrong end of the tiebreaker between themselves, the Falcons and Show Low. With those three teams having victories over each other during the season, the final tiebreaker was overall divisional winning percentage. Under that criteria the Roadrunners finished fifth and will now await their final playoff seeding pending the outcome of the six sectional tournaments, which will be played this week. Heading into the sectional week the Roadrunners were in a somewhat perilous position at 22nd overall. With only the top 24 ranked teams reaching the state tournament, the Roadrunners need to have games played in other sections go their way in order to make the final field of 24 teams. They won’t know their fate until next weekend.